Rolf Ulrich

Jackknife-based method for measuring LRP onset latency differences

A new method based on jackknifing is presented for measuring the difference between two conditions in the onset latencies of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). The method can be used with both stimulus- and response-locked LRPs, and simulations indicate that it provides accurate estimates of onset latency differences in many common experimental conditions.

Using the jackknife‐based scoring method for measuring LRP onset effects in factorial designs

Miller, Patterson, and Ulrich (1998) introduced a jackknife-based method for measuring the differences between two conditions in the onset latencies of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). The present paper generalizes such jackknife-based methods to factorial experiments with any combination of within- and between subjects factors. Specifically, we introduce a subsample scoring method to assess potential main and interaction effects on LRP onsets within conventional yet slightly adjusted analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and post hoc comparison procedures.

Effects of truncation on reaction time analysis

Many reaction time (RT) researchers truncate their data sets, excluding as spurious all RTs falling outside a prespecified range. Such truncation can introduce bias because extreme but valid RTs may be excluded. This article examines biasing effects of truncation under various assumptions about the underlying distributions of valid and spurious RTs. For the mean, median, standard deviation, and skewness of RT, truncation bias is larger than some often-studied experimental effects. Truncation can also seriously distort linear relations between RT and an independent variable, additive RT patterns in factorial designs, and hazard functions, but it has little effect on statistical power. The authors report a promising maximum likelihood procedure for estimating properties of an untruncated distribution from a truncated sample and present in an appendix a set of procedures to control for truncation biases when testing hypotheses.

Partial Advance Information and Response Preparation: Inferences From the Lateralized Readiness Potential

Response speed to a signal is faster when advance information about the forthcoming movement is provided before signal onset. Although this precuing effect is well established, the location of this saving in reaction time (RT) in the information-processing system is controversial. Some authors have claimed that the precuing effect resides at a motoric level, whereas others have suggested a nonmotoric locus. The present experiments used onset latencies of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to locate the precuing effect. The results of 2 experiments with a highly compatible (Experiment 1) and with an incompatible (Experiment 2) stimulus-response mapping indicate that this effect resides, at least partially, in the motoric portion of RT. In addition, the LRP amplitude before signal appearance increased with the amount of advance information, supporting a muscle-specific preparation hypothesis.

Motor coactivation revealed by response force in divided and focused attention

Four experiments examined effects of bimodal stimulation on response force (RF) in addition to reaction time (RT). In a divided-attention task (Experiments 1 to 3), subjects were asked for a speeded response to either a visual or an auditory signal. In unimodal signal trials, either a visual or an auditory signal was presented alone, and in redundant-signals trials, both signals were presented simultaneously. The same stimulus arrangement was used in a focused-attention task (Experiment 4), but subjects had to withhold their response when an auditory signal was presented alone. In all experiments, the fastest RTs were attained in redundant-signals trials. In addition, RF was largest in redundant-signals trials, especially in the divided-attention task, suggesting a motor coactivation hypothesis. The results indicate that the type of stimulation influences not only when a response is initiated but also how the response is executed. This finding challenges the view, commonly held in mental chronometry, that late motoric processes remain untouched by experimental manipulations. A detailed analysis of the relationship between RT and RF revealed that these variables are not inherently redundant measures, and, therefore, RF recording may supplement the traditional RT measurement in mental chronometry.

Testing the race model inequality: an algorithm and computer programs.

In divided-attention tasks, responses are faster when two target stimuli are presented, and thus one is redundant, than when only a single target stimulus is presented. Raab (1962) suggested an account of this redundanttargets effect in terms of a race model in which the response to redundant target stimuli is initiated by the faster of two separate target detection processes. Such models make a prediction about the probability distributions of reaction times that is often calledthe race model inequality, and it is often of interest to test this prediction. In this article, we describe a precise algorithm that can be used to test the race model inequality and present MATLAB routines and a Pascal program that implement this algorithm.

Threshold models of temporal-order judgments evaluated by a ternary response task

This article examines various predictions of temporal-order judgment models (triggered-moment, attention-switching, and perceptual-moment models). These model tests are based on a ternary response-category approach: In each trial two stimuli (e.g., a tone and a light) are presented at times tx and ty, respectively. The time difference d = ty-tx was varied for each trial. After each presentation the subject selected one of three possible responses (“tone and light simultaneously,” “tone first,” or “light first”). Two psychometric functions can be generated from these response categories. It is shown that several models of temporal-order judgments constrain the relationship between these two functions. It was examined for different data sets whether the predicted relationships are satisfied. Several violations of the predicted relationships were observed, providing strong evidence against perceptual-moment models, triggered-moment models, and certain versions of attention-switching models. The proposed tests for each model do not depend on specific distributional assumptions of perceptual latencies. A modified attention-switching model with dwell times depending on stimulus properties might account for the present findings.

Preparing for Action: Inferences from CNV and LRP

Abstract The execution of efficient motor actions is often preceded by preparation in the central nervous system. Although this kind of preparation cannot be observed directly, it, nevertheless, shortens reaction time. In this review we focus on two types of action preparation, namely event and temporal preparation. In particular, we show how modern event-related brain potential techniques can be employed to determine both the covert processes underlying such preparatory effects as well as their locus within the processing chain between stimulus input and action output.

Motor programming of response force and movement direction

Effects of movement advance information were assessed on the prestimulus amplitude of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), on the contingent negative variation (CNV), and on reaction time (RT). In a precuing paradigm with movement parameters hand, direction, and force, partial precues provided advance information about either hand alone, hand plus force, or hand plus direction, and the full precue specified all response parameters. The full precue produced the shortest RTs and the largest CNV amplitude, precuing hand and force or hand and movement direction produced somewhat slower RTs and a somewhat smaller CNV amplitude, and precuing only hand yielded slowest RTs and the smallest CNV amplitude. In contrast, the LRP amplitude was largest for the full precue and was the same for the remaining precues. The CNV appears to index the central assembling of a motor program, and the LRP represents the implementation of the program at more peripheral levels.

Locus of the effect of temporal preparation: Evidence from the lateralized readiness potential

It is well established that reaction time (RT) is shorter when a response signal is preceded by a warning signal, because the warning signal causes the participant to prepare for the upcoming response. A review of chronometric and psychophysiological studies reveals the prevailing view that this temporal preparation operates mainly at a motor level speeding up rather late processes. To assess the locus of this preparation effect, we conducted two experiments employing the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). Contrary to this prevailing view, the results of both experiments clearly indicate that temporal preparation enhances the processing speed of relatively early processes, because a manipulation of temporal uncertainty affected RT, the P300 latency, and the stimulus-to-LRP interval but not the LRP-to-keypress interval.